eli5: Do solar panels only work with sunlight, or can they be tuned to capture energy from other wavelengths outside the visible spectrum?
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Well we can extract energy from any wavelength we choose to. But panels may not be the ideal setup for every means of electromagnetic spectrum energy extraction. For radio waves for example, if you wrap a toilet paper roll core with no 32 enameled copper wire, and you can get one of those radio crystal diodes, use a coat hanger as a modulator to adjust which part of the coil is the contact point, you have a radio that can work on say a cheap pair of 3.5mm earbuds that will actually let you hear radio stations, no batteries. It runs on the radio station itself. It is literally a radio without the amplifier, or without anything else other than the diode and the coil (which acts as a means to tune to different channels). Off top of my head I will guess it’s an AM radio, but maybe I am wrong
Edit yes foxhole radio is AM as I thought
It’s called a foxhole radio and its existence proves that different wavelength doesn’t stop extraction it just changes how to go about achieving it.
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